Just Back: Chris Isaak from Hawaii

I was on the Big Island for a special concert. We played in a palm grove on the beach at night for the 100 people who won a contest through my TV show. BAD, BAD THING: The first time I came here was years ago, to shoot the "Wicked Game" video. People always thought all that smoke behind us was special effects, but it was really steam boiling up from lava pouring into the water. The next day we went back to get some more shots and the beach we'd been standing on was gone. Helena [Christensen] and I could have been encased in stone under the ocean. There are worse ways to go. BEACH BUM: When I'm in Hawaii, I usually swim all day long. One day I was in the ocean about six hours steady, just playing in the waves. People look at you like you're mental, but it's fun. ONLY THE LONELY: Another day, I was trying to visualize the words to a song, so I got a long stick and wrote all the lyrics in a line on the sand. Then I ran down to the other end to see what I'd written. I thought, If somebody walks down the beach . . . Lyrics are okay in a song, but when you read 'em — "You are my only one/My one and only one" — that looks psycho.